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OLD GERMANIC LAW on ABORTION: an Overview1 UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Reading between the lines: Old Germanic and early Christian views on abortion Elsakkers, M.J. Publication date 2010 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Elsakkers, M. J. (2010). Reading between the lines: Old Germanic and early Christian views on abortion. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:02 Oct 2021 Part 2: Chapter 1 329 Chapter 1 OLD GERMANIC LAW ON ABORTION: An Overview1 ROMAN HERITAGE The Germanic tribes that founded kingdoms in the former Roman Empire and in regions to the north and east of the Roman limes brought along their own customs, traditions and laws. They gradually all converted to Christi- anity, and were certainly not immune to Roman culture and society. Germanic kings recognized the significance and the authority of written Roman law, and this prompted them to have law codes of their own drawn up in Latin - the language of literacy. The Old Germanic law codes or leges barbarorum were probably based on age- old laws that had been transmitted orally from generation to generation in the various Germanic vernaculars. However, many of the written codifications were influenced by current Roman law.2 Roman jurists were pro- bably involved in the codification of some of the Old Germanic laws, especially the laws of the tribes that set- tled in the southern parts of western Europe, the heart of the former Roman Empire (Leges Visigothorum, Lex Burgundionum, the Ostrogothic Edictum Theoderici, and the somewhat younger Leges Langobardorum). The Visigothic and Burgundian kings also had their lawyers compile separate compendia of Roman law or leges ro- manae (Lex Romana Visigothorum or Breviarium Alarici and the Lex Romana Burgundionum) for their Italo-, Hispano- and Gallo-Roman subjects.3 In other Germanic kingdoms the Breviarium Alarici (506) and/or the Codex Theodosianus (438) were used as compendia of Roman law.4 Roman law does not prohibit abortion; it condemns poisoning and endangering another person’s life.5 Roman and Jewish law both regard the fetus as a part of the mother’s body, pars viscerum matris.6 In Roman law the fetus is not a person or a separate human being that can be murdered or avenged. Only killing or injuring the mother is punished. The Roman law on poisoning, the Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis (LCSV), forbids selling, supplying, preparing and possessing poison. The Breviarium Alarici (BA) contains the late Roman jurist Paul’s commentary on the LCSV. 1 Many thanks are due to Erika Langbroek, Bert Okken, Sandor Chardonnens, Rolf Bremmer, Liduine Smit-Verheij, Bertine Bouwman, Marjon Deegens, Fabiola van Dam, Aad Quak, Thea van der Linden, and Han Nijdam for help in various ways. 2 For a short overview of Old Germanic law, see: Elsakkers 2006. On the history of late antiquity, the influence of Roman law on the ‘barbarian’ codes, and (the history of) late antique and early medieval Germanic law, see, for instance: Vino- gradoff 1929, Levy 1951, Levy 1951a, Schott 1979, James 1982, 1988, Niederhellmann 1983, Wood 1986, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1998, Drew 1988, Geary 1988, Wolfram & Pohl 1990, Reuter 1991, Schmidt-Wiegand 1991, Cameron 1993, Harries & Wood 1993, Matthews 1993, 2000, 2006, Harries 1993, Wolfram 1997, Wormald 1999a, Wormald 1999, Charles- Edwards 2000, Wickham 2005, Smith 2005, and the articles on Old Germanic law in the Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (HRG). The Monumenta editions of the Old Germanic laws are available on the internet thanks to the courtesy of the MGH and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: http://bsbdmgh.bsb.lrzmuenchen.de/dmgh_new/ (last accessed December 5, 2009). 3 For an edition of the Breviarium Alarici cf. Haenel 1849; for the Lex Romana Burgundionum, see below. 4 For an edition of the Codex Theodosianus (CTh), cf. Mommsen 1904, Pharr 1952 (English translation), and http://www.- thelatinlibrary.com/theodosius.html (last accessed December 5, 2009). See also: Matthews 2000, Harries & Wood 1993, and especially Sirks 1993 and Wood 1993. 5 On Roman law, abortion and the fetus, cf. appendix 1. 6 On Jewish law, cf. Mendelsohn 1891, Feldman 1968, pp. 251-268, Jakobovits 1975, pp. 190-191, Rosner 1976, p. 218, and Silber 1980, p. 236. In Jewish law the fetus is considered ‘potential life’. “The special set of laws governing the abortion question begins with an examination of the foetus’s legal status. For this the Talmud has a phrase, ubar yerekh imo, which is a counterpart of the Latin pars viscerum matris. The foetus, that is, is to be deemed a ‘part of its mother’ rather than an independent entity” (Feldman 1968, p. 253). On the Old Testament law on abortion and the Hebrew and Septuagint version of Exodus 21: 22-23, cf. Te Lindert 1998 and Elsakkers 2005. [article III]. Part 2: Chapter 1 330 Pauli Sententiae PS 5.23.1 (BA PS 5.25.1) Lex Cornelia poenam deportationis infligit ei, qui hominem occiderit eiusve rei causa furtive faciendi cum telo fuerit et qui venenum hominis necandi causa habuerit, vendiderit, paraverit, falsum testimonium dixerit, quo quis periret, mortisve causam praestiterit. Ob quae omnia facinora in honestiores poena capitis vindicari placuit, humiliores vero aut in crucem tolluntur aut bestiis obiciuntur.7 According to the Pauli Sententiae the poisons that are forbidden in the LCSV include abortifacients and aphro- disiacs: Pauli Sententiae PS 5.23.14 (BA PS 5.25.8). Qui abortionis aut amatorium poculum dant, etsi id dolo non faciant, tamen, quia mali exempli res est, humiliores in metallum, honestiores in insulam amissa parte bonorum relegantur; quod si ex hoc mulier aut homo perierit, summo supplicio afficiuntur.8 Roman law forbids giving someone an abortifacient or a love potion, because these concoctions were known to be poisonous and potentially lethal.9 The punishment for poisoners, including those who provide others with abortifacients or aphrodisiacs, is severe - even when no harm was meant or when done in good faith: it entails forfeit of property, banishment to an island or deportation to the mines.10 If the person who is poisoned dies, the punishment is death. Abortion in itself is not punished, nor is the death of the fetus treated as murder. It is poi- soning and jeopardizing another person’s life that is punished. The LCSV influenced the early medieval legis- lators who compiled the Germanic law codes through the Codex Theodosianus and the Breviarium Alarici (506), both of which were well-known and influential throughout the Middle Ages.11 We must not forget that Roman law did not suddenly become obsolete, when the Germanic tribes began putting down their roots down in Western Europe. Written and unwritten Roman law and Roman vulgar law remained in force as the law of the Romans living under Germanic rule, as did provincial law and (oral) customary law, so that many different laws were current in the early medieval West, besides the ‘new’ barbarian laws. Although Germanic law is usually defined as ‘personal law’, it is well to remember that it was not always easy to define a person’s ethnicity.12 This and the abundance of laws could lead to awkward situations, as noted by Agobard (769-840) in his Adversus legem Gundobadi: It often happens that five men are travelling or sitting together, and none of them shares a common law with the others in transitory matters as regards things of the body, although all are bound together with regard to the soul in matters that are eternal, by the one law of Christ. And it may be that all are true christians, loving the truth of the faith, and believing themselves to be the dearest of friends, and none rejects the testimony of any other while they edify each other with good speeches. If it suddenly happens that one of them is involved in a legal dispute, he cannot call a witness from among his 7 Vanzetti 1995, p. 134; Pauli Sententiae, ‘PS 5.23.1 (BA PS 5.25.1) Die Lex Cornelia legt die Strafe der Deportation den- jenigen auf, welche einen Menschen getötet oder dieserhalb, bez. um ein Furtum zu verüben, einer Waffe sich bedient haben werden, und die Gift behufs Beiseiteschaffung eines Menschen gehabt, verkauft, zubereitet, oder ein falsches Zeugnis abge- legt haben werden, damit Jemand zu Grunde gehe, oder die Veranlassung zum Tode eines Menschen gegeben haben werden. Man war dahin einig, dass wegen aller dieser Missethaten gegen Vornehmere mit Kapitalstrafe eingeschritten werde; hin- gegen werden Personen niederen Standes entweder an das Kreuz geschlagen oder den wilden Tieren vorgeworfen’ (Conrat 1903, p. 531). 8 Vanzetti 1995, p. 136; ‘Paul’s Sentences, PS 5.23.14 (BA PS 5.25.8) Those who give an abortifacient or a love potion, and do not do this deceitfully, nevertheless, [because] this sets a bad example, the humiliores will be banned to a mine, and the honestiores will be banned to an island after having forfeited (part of) their property, and if on account of that a woman or man perishes, then they [Pharr: the giver] will receive the death penalty’ (Pharr 1932, p.
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